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Monday, March 2, 2015

Vatican City, 2 March 2015 (VIS) – A
press conference was held in the Holy See Press Office this morning
to present the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network, established in 2014 in
Brasilia, Brazil, during a meeting of bishops whose territories
include Amazon regions, priests, missionaries of congregations who
work in the Amazon jungle, national representatives of Caritas and
laypeople belonging to various Church bodies. The speakers were
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the Pontifical
Council “Justice and Peace”; Archbishop Pedro Ricardo Barreto
Jimeno, S.J., of Huancayo, Peru and president of the Department of
Justice and Solidarity of the Latin American Episcopal Council;
Michel Roy, secretary general of Caritas Internationalis; and
Mauricio Lopez Oropeza, executive secretary of REPAM. Cardinal
Claudio Hummes, O.F.M., president of the Commission for Amazonia of
the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, was unable to be
present but participated via an audio message.

The Amazon territory is the largest
tropical forest in the world. It covers six million square kilometres
and includes the territories of Guyana, Suriname and French Guyana,
Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. It is home to
2,779,478 indigenous people, comprising 390 indigenous tribes and 137
isolated (uncontacted) peoples with their valuable ancestral
cultures, and 240 spoken languages belonging to 49 linguistic
families. As Archbishop Barreto explained, it is “a territory that
is devastated and threatened by the concessions made by States to
transnational corporations. Large-scale mining projects, monoculture
and climate change place its lands and natural environment at great
risk”, leading to the destruction of cultures, undermining the
self-determination of peoples and above all affronting Christ
incarnate in the people who live there (indigenous and riparian
peoples, peasant farmers, afro-descendants and urban populations).
REPAM was founded as “God's answer to this heartfelt and urgent
need to care for the life of people so they are able to live in
harmony with nature, starting from the widespread and varied presence
of members and structures of the Church in Pan-Amazonia”.

Cardinal Turkson illustrated the main
characteristics of the network, starting with transnationality. “The
large number of countries involved is due to the awareness that
effective action to face challenges that cross the borders of a
single State requires synergy between the living forces of all the
nations involved, from the Secretariat of the REPAM to that of the
dioceses and other Church initiatives in the various States, without
forgetting that, from the beginning, the REPAM has worked in harmony
with the Holy See, CELAM and its structures”. Another key feature
is ecclesiality: “as well as working transnationally, REPAM
proposes the institution of harmonious collaboration between the
various components of the Church: religious congregations, dioceses,
Caritas, various Catholic associations and Foundations, and lay
groups”.

Commitment to the defence of life is,
for Cardinal Turkson, the third characteristic. “REPAM was born in
response to important challenges. It is engaged in defending the life
of a number of communities who cumulatively comprise 30 million
people. They are threatened by pollution, the radical and rapid
change of the ecosystem upon which they depend, and the lack of
protection for their basic human rights”. He added that the network
is presented in Rome not only on account of the symbolic value of the
See of Peter, but also to give visibility to REPAM. “The form in
which REPAM, acting as a platform, is structured and defines its
working methods, its agenda, its allies or its methods of
accreditation, could serve as a model for other local churches in
other countries facing similar challenges. In addition, REPAM has
been conceived so as to become a took that may be applied in
different basic contexts, such as justice, legality, the promotion
and protection of human rights; cooperation between the Church and
public institutions at various levels; conflict prevention and
management; research and spread of information; inclusive and
equitable economic development; responsible and equitable use of
natural resources, respecting Creation; and the preservation of the
traditional cultures and ways of life of the different populations”.

Cardinal Hummes, in his audio message,
reiterated that the creation of the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network
“represents a new incentive and relaunch of the work of the Church
in Amazonia, strongly desired by the Holy Father. There, the Church
wishes to be, with courage and determination, a missionary Church,
merciful, prophetic, and close to all the people, especially the
poorest, the excluded, the discarded, the forgotten and wounded. A
Church with an 'Amazonian face' and an 'native clergy', as Pope
Francis proposed in his address to the bishops of Brazil”.